Starting off 2019 on right foot...

Gymnastics Ireland (GI) is proud to announce that we have completed the implementation of the Governance Code for Community & Voluntary organisations as a 'Type C' organisation. Over the past number of years the GI Board along with the CEO have been engaged in a restructuring of our organisation to ensure that we are operating in-line with best practice standards of governance and policy development. In order to achieve compliance there are approx. 50 action points which must be implemented across 5 main principals...

PRINCIPLE 1. LEADING YOUR ORGANISATION

PRINCIPLE 2. EXERCISING CONTROL OVER OUR ORGANISATION

PRINCIPLE 3. BEING TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE

PRINCIPLE 4. WORKING EFFECTIVELY

PRINCIPLE 5. BEHAVING WITH INTEGRITY

In order to complete this process in late 2017 GI engaged the services of Sarah O'Shea, an expert who specialises in sports law/governance and who is well known and respected in the Irish sports sector having occupied a number of roles over the years including being a former President/Chair of the Federation of Irish Sport, former Deputy CEO of the FAI and current member of the UEFA Women in Leadership initiative in addition to being the current Secretary of the Olympic Federation of Ireland and a consultant for Sport Ireland.

Commenting on the implementation John Treacy, CEO Sport Ireland said...

“Sport Ireland places a high premium on good governance, and encourages high standards in governance from all funded bodies. We are delighted that Gymnastics Ireland has become the latest National Governing Body of Sport to fully adopt the Community and Voluntary Code of Governance. The adoption of the code will assist Gymnastics Ireland in how it governs and manages the sport of gymnastics, assist in increasing accountability to the membership and support volunteers in performing their duties for the organisation. We would like to congratulate all in Gymnastics Ireland and wish them well for the future.”

Gymnastics Ireland Chair, Gerard Rellis, also stated...

"Gymnastics Ireland has been engaged in restructure for a number of years, our goal has always been to focus on people, processes & technology to drive best practice and ensure our governance structures are fit for purpose for today's sport and business environment. We engaged a highly respected external consultant, Sarah O'Shea, with the appropriate skill and experience to develop, in partnership with the board & CEO, a full suite of governance policy documents to ensure GI were fully compliant with Sport Ireland's requirement that all NGB bodies become compliant within their requested time-frame! GI is delighted to confirm that that we declared full compliance in December 2018 and will be implementing our new policies and structures with immediate effect"

Gymnastics Ireland CEO, Ciaran Gallagher, added...

"Good governance principals, structures and policies are crucial to the development of any organisation and sports organisations are no different. I am proud that we have declared our full compliance with the governance code following a full governance audit by Sarah O'Shea who we must thank for her invaluable input and guidance in this process. Sarah was instrumental in the governance restructure of Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) following Rio and has an extensive background of assisting similar organisations through the same process in both the Irish sport sector and internationally so we knew we were in good hands. What this means for our members & partners such as Sport Ireland, the OFI and sponsors is that they can have confidence that appropriate structures, policies and 'check & challenge' systems are in place to ensure our organisation continues on the excellent development path it has been on for the last number of years.'

For more information on the Governance Code please visit https://www.governancecode.ie/

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